10867: Asinine Alzheimer’s Ad.

McCann in Turkey makes fun of grandma’s dementia. Nice.

From Ads of the World.

10760: Jesus Christ, McCann!

Memo to creative team at McCann Erickson in Lithuania: You’re also going straight to hell—in style.

From Ads of the World.

9812: BHM 2012—Madison Avenue Ads.

If White advertising agencies produced self-promotional messages to celebrate Black History Month, the ads would probably look like these parodies.

9543: Delayed WTF 15—IPG = No New Taxes.

MultiCultClassics is often occupied with real work. As a result, a handful of events occur without the expected blog commentary. This limited series—Delayed WTF—seeks to make belated amends for the absence of malice.

Earlier this month, global news sources reported on a study revealing 30 big and greedy U.S. corporations that paid zero taxes in 2008 through 2010. On the list is Interpublic Group, parent company of advertising agencies like McCann Erickson, Lowe + Partners and Draftfcb. IPG brags about values including integrity and transparency—as well as corporate governance grounded in accountability. Yet explaining the tax dodging would require seriously twisting McCann’s classic line, Truth Well Told. Who knew there are tax incentives for inept leadership, account mismanagement, offensive advertising and mass layoffs? Perhaps IPG will become a case study for the Institute of Advertising Ethics. Or a target for the Occupy movement.

9129: McCann NY Shedding Old Mad Men?

Adweek reported on potentially deep layoffs at McCann Erickson NY, publishing a lame agency statement that read:

“As part of McCann’s reinvention, the agency has had to make some very difficult decisions. One result is that some employees will not make the transition with us. Protecting both individuals and the health of the company is a difficult balance. The decisions made were hard. But they were based on a clear strategy for the agency.”

Of course, the “clear strategy” is not being publicly defined, flying in the face of the company’s “Truth Well Told” slogan. But Adweek appears to be hinting at the reinvention plan with its stock photo selection featuring a mature executive who has just been terminated. Then again, BDAs are notorious for keeping their Old White Guys employed—although Universal McCann did have an age discrimination lawsuit pending.

8971: ExxonMobil Seeks New Partner In Lies.

Adweek reported on the pitch for ExxonMobil, announcing the oil company hopes to make a final decision by the end of August. The winning advertising agency will likely be charged with immediately creating warm-and-fuzzy propaganda to deflect attention from ExxonMobil’s latest oil spill fuck-up.

ExxonMobil Narrows Creative Field in Global Review

Euro RSCG among those cut

By Andrew McMains and Noreen O’Leary

The long-awaited cut among creative agencies in ExxonMobil’s global review has finally come down.

Still standing are BBDO, DDB and McCann Erickson. DDB handles fuel advertising and McCann creates ads for lubricants and chemicals. Euro RSCG, which leads corporate image efforts, has been eliminated.

Globally, the oil giant spends about $300 million annually in media.

The three finalists emerged from a field of six that also included Publicis and The Martin Agency, which partnered with fellow Interpublic Group agency Lowe. For the media portion of its business, ExxonMobil is only considering OMD, Universal McCann and MPG.

Joanne Davis Consulting in New York is managing the review, which ExxonMobil started planning for in the fall. Davis and a representative for ExxonMobil declined to comment. The company hopes to complete the process next month.

8878: McCann’s Millennials Mumblings.

Adweek seemingly published a press release from McCann Worldgroup, hyping the agency’s latest youth study. What’s the key to reaching today’s youth? “Advertising should [be] truthful, genuine, sociable, mature, and humble to connect.” Wow, thanks for the insight, McCann. That’s not truth well told—it’s common sense masquerading as thought leadership.

McCann on Millennials, Social Media, and Brands

Study finds brands should follow the top five traits young people look for in social friends.

By Noreen O’Leary

Call them the FB generation.

McCann Worldgroup’s newly completed global survey “The Truth About Youth,” which polled 16-to-30-year-olds, concludes that millennials live in a new “social economy” in which the power of sharing and recommending brands cannot be overstated. (Past generations defined themselves by material possessions or experiences.)

This group, according to the study, lives outloud, emphasizing public self-definition, life narration, and broadcasting via blogging platforms, digital cameras, and cheap editing and design software.

In the words of one study respondent: “If there are no pics, it didn’t happen.”

McCann also found that respondents in Brazil, China, and India, where emerging consumers are forging fledgling brand loyalties, feel most strongly about telling friends about brands they like.

The agency’s takeaway: Brands should follow the top five traits young people said they look for in their social friends. Advertising should [be] truthful, genuine, sociable, mature, and humble to connect.

The biggest mistake marketers make? Overestimating their own importance. Young consumers say they quickly tire of brands that clutter up digital feeds with what they see as useless information. We can relate.

8810: The Burger King Minority Report.

Adweek reported on the Burger King pitch, spotlighting dark horse CHI & Partners. The relatively unknown New York shop boasts 60 employees toiling mostly on U.K. accounts. Yep, a virtual startup agency has a better shot at winning the $300 million account than a minority agency. Hell, it’s not even clear if Burger King will hire minority agencies to handle minority assignments—unless the assignments involve running a grill.

Upstart Chases Burger King’s Business

CHI & Partners duels with giants in $300 million review

By Andrew McMains

CHI & Partners is a welterweight in a heavyweight fight: the pitch for Burger King’s $300 million, massively high-profile U.S. creative business.

The 60-person New York shop is facing two global behemoths (McCann Erickson and Saatchi & Saatchi) and a big national player (mcgarrybowen). Even agency co-founder Johnny Hornby knows that his shop is an underdog. Still, with a sugar daddy like WPP Group (which owns 49 percent of CHI), Hornby enters this week’s final presentations with deep resources and royal ambitions.

Indeed, in the meeting that CHI had with BK to reach the finals, it had backup from other WPP agency executives, including Ogilvy & Mather and BK roster shops Wunderman (field marketing) and MindShare (media). Media and field marketing aren’t in play; the leaders of those shops simply presented a united front.

The pivotal question facing CHI is whether BK’s new Brazilian owners, 3G Capital—who didn’t gel with irreverent outgoing shop Crispin Porter + Bogusky—will embrace an upstart in the U.S. that lives mainly on business from U.K. accounts. Also, how will the chain’s American franchisees—a breed not particularly known for risk taking—respond to a relative unknown?

“In a franchisee/client situation, it’s more likely they will play it safe and go with one of the big shops,” says Avi Dan of Avidan Strategies in New York. “I think the days of risk are over at BK.”

Hornby, a Brit and half-brother of writer Nick Hornby, opened modestly in New York four years ago to service Best Buy Mobile—a joint venture between Best Buy and The Carphone Warehouse, a founding account in London. At the time, Hornby soft-pedaled his plans, describing New York as a service offering.

A friend scoffed at such modesty, however, noting that Hornby is wildly ambitious. A BK win would obviously put CHI and Hornby, who declined to comment for this story, on the map. Beyond Best Buy Mobile, CHI New York works on Samsung—another London account—and recently added The Body Shop and a new product assignment from Virgin.

CHI’s New York staff occupies two floors of an open loft space in SoHo, across the street from Balthazar and around the corner from the Crosby Street Hotel. Spray painted graffiti-style on one wall is the sentiment, or perhaps rallying cry: “Work hard and be nice to people”—the obvious product of creatives toiling away after-hours. To service an account like BK, CHI would need at least another 50 staffers, including some on the ground in the restaurant’s Miami home base.

Oh yeah, and playing “nice” is probably not going to cut it.

8419: We Are The Champions…?

Gotta hand it to IPG for its continued self-promotion regarding diversity. Now the New York Urban League is saluting the holding company with the 2011 Champions of Diversity Award. Um, has anyone been tracking the culturally clueless work regularly spewing from leading IPG shops like Draftfcb and McCann? In the end, IPG’s diversity propaganda might be its most breakthrough and effective campaign ever.

8378: Agency Diversity Statement 7.

“When we say we respect diversity at McCann Worldgroup we mean we support individual expression of all employees by respecting the differences with regards to race, gender, age, color, country of origin, sexual orientation, religion, familial or marital status, ancestry, citizenship, veteran status or disabilities.”

— Nick Brien, Chairman and CEO

8167: McCann’s Makeover Myth.

McCann is famous for its credo, “Truth Well Told.” Seems like the agency stretched the truth by implying its Chief Diversity Officer has created a Multicultural Mecca.

6875: Empirically Shown To Be Liars.

Advertising Age allowed two wonks from McCann Erickson New York—Leslie Long and Chris Cutone—to blather about their cutting-edge hiring practices. The column reads like the agency lawyers served as editors. The dim-witted duo admits that the shop is most actively seeking individuals offering immediate payoff. Which probably means you must have ties to a major account. Or you’re a cheap interactive developer with Flash skills.

Why, there’s even diversity-related gobbledygook:

We are also working on our diversity and inclusion efforts across every agency discipline and at every level of employment. Following the philosophy of Lori Senecal, president of our office, we believe we should be an innovator and leader in diversity, not only for the social good but also because diversity empirically has been shown to increase creativity.

Of course, they’re not sharing their innovative leadership schemes. And how can they declare that “diversity empirically has been shown to increase creativity” when the industry—and McCann Erickson New York—has no way to prove it, given the abject lack of diversity? Brilliant, ladies. Now would you please go back to your cubicles and focus on reducing employee health insurance benefits and eliminating employer 401(k) contributions?

6231: Another Poor Idea From McCann.

Advertising Age weighed in on a new enterprise from McCann Worldgroup called Barrio, an agency dedicated to targeting the poor in Latin America. The author of the piece ponders the ethical and moral questions behind the move. Hey, it’s hardly unprecedented. U.S. advertisers have pushed products on low-income minorities for generations—from cigarettes to liquor to lottery tickets. Gary Coleman ain’t talking to Philip Drummond in those CashCall commercials. At the same time, McCann has not exactly demonstrated sensitivity with its efforts involving dads, pit bulls and Beyoncé. Or its own veteran employees. Oh, there’s cultural hijinks and hilarity ahead.

New McCann Latin Unit Broaches a Question: Is It Right to Target the Poor?
Agency Called Barrio Established Just in Time for Global Recession

By Matthew Creamer

For many obvious reasons, marketers don’t openly talk much about segmenting their consumers by economic class unless, of course, they’re talking about the affluent. Identifying a person as rich isn’t a particularly touchy matter. Not like when you’re calling someone poor and then trying to figure how best to shove more product his or her way. But that’s exactly what McCann Worldgroup is doing with a new unit called Barrio, whose mission will be to help massive marketers like Nestle and SABMiller understand the poor in Latin America.

The announcement of the new unit comes on the heels of a large research project that’s already yielded a couple of insights that have been translated into programs. For SABMiller’s Panamanian beer brand Atlas, McCann is running a contest that will allow winners to guest broadcast during a baseball game. The contest reflects the Warholian insight that Panamanians want a few minutes of fame.

Because this is the advertising business, there has to be a bit of corporate playacting and Barrio can do that, apparently. Among its offerings is the ability to ghetto up otherwise cushy environs so suits can see how the other half lives. In an article today, the Wall Street Journal describes how in McCann’s Bogota outpost chickens have been let loose to peck around the feet of clients. Clients in Mexico City ate tacos off of plastic mats in a room designed to look like a bodega. Ah, the desperation … you can almost smell it.

As to the ethical dilemma, the article is generally free of critical wrestling with the issue, noting only that the approach may “raise some eyebrows.” The piece pretty much nets out where Luca Lindner, head of McCann’s Latin American operations, does, which is with the conclusion that bringing deodorant and packaged food to the poor will help them both in physical and psychological terms. As Mr. Linder was quoted, “We do not pretend to be Mother Teresa.”

No doubt, but how Barrio weighs in on the moral scale is sure to be determined by whether it actually helps marketers create products that increase that well-being. Market research on the poor is lacking. But good research and compassionate thinking about product development, which doesn’t necessarily involve rich executives partaking in incredibly contrived exercises in acting like the poor, should be used to create affordable, necessary things. That will help increase the well-being Mr. Lindner mentions, rather than just help big companies pad their margins by finding ways to squeeze a few extra pesos out of their consumers—something that will be especially tempting now that the era of mass affluence seems to have come to a crashing end.

6168: DiSesa DiSenseless.

The Special Anniversary Issue commemorating 30 years of Adweek features an opinion column by McCann Erickson Chairman Nina DiSesa, wherein the woman inadvertently displays a lot of the issues with today’s industry leaders.

DiSesa has gone on record with her disdain for critical blogs; hence, she’ll probably spit on the following observations as well—provided she even stumbles across our humble URL. Whatever. This honestly isn’t directed at her, so much as the attitudes she symbolizes.

For starters, DiSesa literally spends nearly 70 percent of the perspective focusing on her favorite topic: herself. How typical of Madison Avenue honchos to believe the universe revolves around them. Forget wasting precious time debating concepts or creating new visions. Let me tell you about me. And my illustrious career. And the hijinks-heavy anecdotes that are totally irrelevant in the current marketplace.

Then DiSesa writes a comment that continues to confuse after multiple readings. Please feel free to interpret the excerpt:

When I was entering this profession, a twentysomething creative person was tolerated until he or she did successful TV. Now, I am discovering that entry-level people are more fascinating to me than I am. These young people understand the Internet, digital technology and other young people. They don’t know what barriers are, and their ideas about communication are dazzling.

“Now, I am discovering that entry-level people are more fascinating to me than I am.” What the hell does that mean? Is she admitting to self-absorbed narcissism? Plus, phrases like, “These young people understand the Internet…” make DiSesa sound like a dinosaur. Besides, she really should choose her words more carefully, especially given that McCann Erickson is still facing an age discrimination lawsuit.

Ultimately, DiSesa’s essay doesn’t provide any substantial insight. It’s just a bag of air. Unless one squints between the lines and realizes it completely represents the ad world’s aristocracy.

McCann Erickson’s slogan is, “Truth Well Told.” There’s definitely truth to be found in the Adweek column. Not too sure, however, that it’s very well told.

5871: Adweek Examines Ageism In Advertising.

MultiCultClassics has regularly blasted Adweek/Adwhite for its consistent cultural cluelessness in recent years. But now there’s a topic where the staff does demonstrate credibility and expertise: ageism. Noreen O’Leary presents the in-depth report below.

War of the Ages
How a host of new agency realities are pushing boomers out before their time

By Noreen O’Leary

The ad biz has always been a game for the young. But has ageism become the norm?

Earlier this month, a judge set a December trial date for a $30 million age-discrimination suit by a Universal McCann media exec, George Hayes, against the agency and its corporate parent, Interpublic Group. Hayes says he was fired by a younger boss who believed young people at the agency “got it” when it came to new media in a way that older staffers did not. In addition, Hayes claims, his former boss viewed “age and experience as a hindrance, rather than a benefit.”

The two sides seem ready to go public with the private concerns of a generation of industry execs fearing displacement at a time they should be in their peak earning years.

Valid or not, the contentions of Hayes -- a former evp, client services let go at age 53 -- ring true for a large number of other executives on the street who are arguing their relevance.

Even within the youth-obsessive traditions of the ad industry, there’s a new sense of gloom about the career prospects for mid- to upper-level employees.

Creative executives, who have obviously always felt the need to exude a hipness born of cutting-edge culture, now feel it tenfold thanks to the fast pace of digital technologies and emerging delivery channels. Now others are feeling youthful pressures in a media world and larger consumer society informed by technological change. But the issues are more complicated; they’re as much about compensation and changing skill sets as they are about tenure. Factor in the current economic downturn and client budget cuts that create an incentive to lose higher-salaried employees, and it’s no wonder some in the industry see an overt ageism taking hold that could make a new minority: those over 50.

“Baby boomers always say that 40 is the new 30 [and] 50 is the new 40. In advertising, 50 is the new 65. As soon as you hit that barrier, you’re considered old,” says Dorothy Higgins, 54, who is consulting after being laid off earlier this year from one of the industry’s media companies.

That barrier, in fact, may be dipping even lower. Says one of Higgins’ peers: “It’s now starting at 40 or 45. Unless you’ve gotten to a certain stage in your career where you have one of those bullet-proof jobs—where you are extremely key to a client—you’re vulnerable.”

Not to be discounted in all of this is the fact that with “CMOs getting younger, you have a casting issue,” says Nancy McNally, 53, a former top executive at agencies like Ammirati & Puris and clients like American Express.

Industry observer Rick Kurnit, a partner at law firm Frankfurt, Kurnit, Klein & Selz, agrees that client-casting issues play a role and points out that it cuts two ways. While younger CMOs may relate better to agency staffers in their peer group, he says, older ones look for the agency perspective on new media creative they themselves may lack. There may also be an element of being in the wrong career place at the wrong time. Boomers climbed their careers ranks in a different agency world. Amid new unbundled economic realities, CFOs, demanding that 75 percent of payroll come from client income, can attain cost savings more readily by cutting higher-salaried staffers. The newly empowered client-procurement people look to buy agency hours at cost and young staffers are obviously cheaper. “None of these factors reflect the merits of these [older] people, unfortunately,” Kurnit says.

[Read the full report here.]

5802: Who’s To Blame For L’Oréal And Beyoncé?

One more quick hit regarding L’Oréal and Beyoncé.

As always, the advertiser is taking the heat while the advertising agency quietly cowers in a corner. It’s difficult to identify the responsible agency via Google. New York’s McCann-Erickson handles the Féria brand in the U.S. If McCann is the culprit in this latest fiasco, well, it would be no surprise. The shop recently watched another client, Verizon Wireless, pull a commercial deemed insensitive by pit bull lovers. Plus, McCann’s as culturally clueless as they come on Madison Avenue.

Again, MultiCultClassics is not convinced Beyoncé was whitewashed. However, it’s quite likely her image was messed up by Whites.

5730: Garfield Barks At Verizon And McCann…?

Advertising Age reported another instance of offensive messaging from Madison Avenue: The unfair depiction of pit bulls in a Verizon commercial created by McCann Erickson. Since Bob Garfield is probably too busy ranting against homophobic Snickers spots, MultiCultClassics graciously drafted the following for our culture-crusading compatriot…

An Open Letter to Verizon and McCann Erickson
You Have Produced a Pit Bullphobic Spot. Doggone It!

By Bob Garfield (sort of)

Dear Verizon and McCann Erickson:

Verizon has aired commercials making dads look dumb, prompting official protests. McCann Erickson has been accused of ageism by veteran employees. So it’s no surprise that two bigoted enterprises should team up to heap bias and discrimination on innocent pit bulls.

This despicable spot is explicitly malevolent and beyond the pale. So unseemly, so perverse, so beneath you. This dog shit is enough to make me consider dumping Verizon for Comcast.

This is from Verizon’s own statement on corporate diversity (McCann Erickson doesn’t appear to have a statement on corporate diversity, which explains a lot): “It is Verizon Wireless’ policy that threatening, insubordinate, violent or obscene behavior by any employee will not be tolerated. Prohibited conduct includes, but is not limited to, derogatory remarks, discriminatory slurs and harassing jokes.” Is that so? My guess is that the pit bulls abused and destroyed by Michael Vick would take a different view. Because your commercial is just a cartoonish stereotype of family-friendly pets that are occasionally used for illegal dogfighting.

How could you be so insensitive, how could you be so shallow, and how could you be so mean as a Chihuahua?

This letter is to you, but it is equally to your hound-hating colleagues throughout the industry. Are you so bereft, of ideas and simple animal humaneness, that you must be reduced to stereotyping and pit bullying? That you must identify a “bitch” to ridicule, or worse? That you must build a brand on the backs of canines who have harmed no one save for, well, countless incidents of vicious mauling and death?

Stop the dehumanizing stereotypes—even for non-humans. Stop the rabid violence. There is no place in advertising for cruelty (except to minorities). Pull the commercial. Do it now. Then tell your people how to behave—plus how to sit, roll over and beg. Or else you might get hit in the snout with a rolled-up newspaper.

5133: Old News From Mad Ave.

The following story appeared at Adweek.com. Hey, McCann Erickson chairman Nina DiSesa recently blathered about the importance of diversity. Wonder what she thinks of this scenario.

Judge Lets Lawsuit v. UM Proceed

By Steve McClellan

NEW YORK U.S. District Court Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein today denied Universal McCann’s motion for summary dismissal of an age discrimination lawsuit brought against the Interpublic Group agency by George Hayes, former evp, client services.

Hayes was let go by UM in early 2006 and filed suit here in May of that year.

UM filed its motion to dismiss in November 2007. The shop had argued that Hayes was one of a group of UM executives and staffers laid off and that his termination had nothing to do with his age (he was 53 at the time). Instead, UM argued, he was terminated primarily because he was a senior executive who did not have any clients under his purview and the shop determined it couldn’t afford to carry high-level staff that didn’t have client responsibilities. (The agency also said it lost key clients that had previously been overseen by Hayes.)

Apparently Hellerstein did not think UM’s arguments were strong enough to dismiss the case, although the judge did not state specifically in his written order, dated Feb. 15, why he ruled in Hayes’ favor.

In his response asking the judge to deny UM’s motion, Hayes argued in December that the performance issues the shop cited were a “fiction” and that younger, less qualified staff members blundered and ultimately cost the agency key accounts yet received promotions anyway.

UM officials and lawyers could not immediately be reached for comment.

Hayes attorney Murray Schwartz, a partner in Schwartz & Perry, New York, said he was “delighted” with Hellerstein’s ruling. “It will give George an opportunity to present his case to a jury and that is a good result.”

Meanwhile, Hellerstein instructed both sides to continue gathering expert testimony and other discovery evidence. He said the parties would meet in July to discuss the status of the case. A trial date has not yet been set.